Heretic Apothecary Genius - Chapter 45

Chapter 45: Teacher Acknowledgment Gift

After the Wen family head heard the news, he showed a bitter smile and shook his head. After the existence of a genius like Ren Tianxing, the Ren family was bound to suffer a fall when it was at the pinnacle of power. If that continued, the Ren family would not only suffer a fall, it was highly likely that it might…

Within the Gao family abode, Gao Peng had just returned to his house from the military base. He was clad in a brand new military uniform, which made him appear very suave. He had shed the sullen aura which revolved around him when he was beaten up by Ren Jie in front of the imperial palace. The immature vibe of a student from the Jade Imperial Academy that he possessed had also disappeared.

There was an elderly man and around a dozen guards following behind him. The mighty demeanor was befitting for his status as the vice chief of staff. The elder behind him was a long-staying guest at the Fang family abode who was at the fifth level of the Divine Power Realm. His appearance was specially arranged by Gao Zhanyuan due to the beating by Tong Qiang in front of the imperial palace under the orders of Ren Jie.

“Great. The Ren family clan produced Ren Tianxing twenty years ago. Now, our Gao family clan has my son. I believe our family clan will become the head of the five biggest family clans again in a few years’ time,” Gao Zhanyuan said in a happy tone while showing Gao Peng, who had just returned home from the military base, a pleased look.

He lifted his hand and waved it slightly to order those people behind to leave. Afterward, he abided the rules and bowed to Gao Zhanyuan before having a seat and smiling.

“Ren Tianxing’s talent and luck in martial arts cultivation are incomparable. However, just having one powerful person is insufficient to lead the family clan to become the strongest. The Ren family now is the best example of it. As long as Ren Tianxing doesn’t return to the Ren family, that family clan will fall apart and become isolated. In my opinion, that shows that the Ren family clan is not truly strong.” Although Gao Peng had only gone to the military base for a couple of days, his presence had changed completely. He was completely different from how he was back in the academy. He had become more calm and nonchalant when he spoke.

“Haha… You are right. The Ren family should be in chaos now. I never expected that Ren Jie would successfully save Fang Qi. No matter if he is truly the person who poisoned her, he is definitely going to take the blame for it. The noble family head of the Ren family was accused of being a tyrant merely for that little benefit. Now, everyone knows that he acted tyrannically and wanted to pressure Fang Qi into balancing the yin and yang with him. This matter is escalating. The Ren family is going to become infamous.” Just like everybody else, Gao Zhanyuan was elated when he heard the news.

Gao Peng had a faint smirk on his face as he lifted the teacup and took a sip. “If Ren Jie is truly the person who poisoned Fang Qi, there must be someone supporting him. It might even be possible that the person supporting him was also involved in those recent matters that Ren Jie did within the Ren family clan. He could not have done all of that by himself. Alternatively, if Ren Jie is not the person who poisoned Fang Qi, that means he truly has a treasure with him. I have a feeling that things are not as simple as they seem. The Fang family displayed their intentions of targeting the Ren family clan. The emperor is obviously turning a blind eye to these matters. The Wen family clan is too weak and is not actively participating in these matters. I think that now is a good opportunity. Father, you could show your stance indirectly.”

“Stance?”

Gao Peng took another sip of tea and said calmly, “There will definitely be many people attacking the Ren family during the imperial conference tomorrow. We do not need to be in the spotlight and initiate attacks on them. Everyone knows our relationship with the Ren family. It will suffice for you to tell our allies to support others’ attacks. We can discuss the rest based on the circumstances then.”

When Gao Zhanyuan heard the plan, the nodded his head and complimented Gao Peng for the plan.

In the natural forest within the Ren family abode, the sixth master Ren Tianzong was busy utilizing some secretive measures to arrange for people to procure those things that Ren Jie wrote. He did not expect to receive that news.

“Little rascal. This little rascal. What exactly is he doing?” After the sixth master Ren Tianzong heard the news, a curse word slipped out of his mouth uncontrollably.

Wan Hong smiled grudgingly and said, “It is really hard trying to understand and guess the things that the family head does. However, him forcefully seizing the Chang Le Casino that belonged to the Chang Le Gang using a low price has caused a huge ruckus. I am afraid that people may report about that during tomorrow’s imperial conference. After all, he has not abided by the rules. The Clear Jade Dynasty is becoming more and more prosperous. Such acts of seizing others’ properly by force will definitely not be condoned. This is obviously the Fang family’s scheme, or rather, their retaliation. They might have vaguely guessed that the poison was really caused by our family head. As for the rumor about balancing the yin and yang, it doesn’t really affect the family head.”

What Wan Hong said was true. Ren Jie had always had a bad reputation. In the past, he was notorious for being a pampered disciple. He had continued living life in the fast lane even after he had become the family head. Furthermore, everyone knew that he was pursuing Fang Qi. That caused rumors about that to become less important.

The most important issue was about the family head poisoning Fang Qi and seizing others’ property by force. That was the key issue. Ren Jie had told them face-to-face that he was the person who administered the poison. They knew that he had extorted the Fang family clan. However, they had not thought that things would turn out that way.

“Sixth Master, do you want me to invite the family head over. We can bring guys over to the Chang Le Gang…”

“No.” Ren Tianzong shook his head and said, “We shall wait and see what happens. However, I want you to hold my token tablet and find the Great General Zhan. Tell him to… in tomorrow’s imperial conference…”

If it was in the past, Ren Tianzong would be furious when he heard the news. He would not even bother to involve himself in the issue. However, after he had met Ren Jie, he knew that his nephew was no longer the pampered kid that everyone perceived him as. Ren Tianzong believed that Ren Jie must have had a reason for what he did since he had been hiding his true personality for so long.

Wait. Ren Tianzong decided that he would wait to see how the matter developed. The imperial conference was not a threat to them. He did not care if there was going to be a ruckus during the imperial conference. Those were merely superficial matters. Even if his nephew had not eradicated that bad habit of his and had tried to extort the Fang family, but ended being maligned and used by them, those minuscule problems would not truly put the Ren family in danger. They would not pose a danger to him either.

Even though Ren Tianzong trusted Ren Jie and was patient enough to wait for the outcome, he was not going to sit around and do nothing. At the very least, he had to ensure that others would not assume that there was no capable person within the Ren family and that they could easily bully members of the Ren family.

Therefore, he handed a token tablet to Wan Hong and instructed him carefully.

The Fang family had tried killing two birds with one stone. They had retaliated after they were extorted by Ren Jie. There was a ruckus outside. Yet, Ren Jie was not at all worried about what was happening on the outside. He was sitting in his study room, resigned to the situation but happy about it as well.

There was a special jade container on the coffee table in Ren Jie’s bedroom. The jade container was relatively small and contained five pieces of crystal clear spiritual jades. Although there were only five pieces, they were enough to capture anyone’s attention. The reason was that they were all superior-grade spiritual jades. According to the conversion rates, five pieces of superior-grade spiritual jades were equivalent to five hundred middle-grade spiritual jades, five thousand inferior-grade spiritual jades and five hundred thousand jade coins.

However, superior-grade spiritual jades were very rare. It would still be difficult to buy them even if one had sufficient money. When one was at the True Qi Realm, inferior-grade spiritual jades would be useful to speed up one’s cultivation. However, few people at the True Qi Realm had the financial capacity to obtain inferior-grade spiritual jades. Only disciples belonging to big family clans could afford using inferior-grade spiritual jades to cultivate.

The best option for those at the Divine Power Realm was middle-grade spiritual jades. However, that would vary based on one’s circumstances. Many people at the Divine Power Realm could only afford using inferior-grade spiritual jades. Therefore, inferior-grade and middle-grade spiritual jades were the most commonly used. Meanwhile, superior-grade spiritual jades were very rare. There were not many of them in the market. Thus, it was almost impossible to exchange for superior-grade spiritual jades.

Not long after Ren Jie returned home, Chang Laosi disguised himself and contacted Ren Jie using the conduit that Ren Jie provided him to send those things over. He had them secretly hidden and had retrieved them especially for Ren Jie.

If there were only those five pieces of superior-grade spiritual jades, Ren Jie would not be so troubled and would have simply given him a million jade coins. However, there was a storage pouch within the jade container that Chang Laosi gave him. Although that storage pouch was not very big, it contained a three-cubic-meter space which was almost filled to the brim with spiritual jades. There were fifteen thousand inferior-grade spiritual jades and seven hundred middle-grade spiritual jades in the storage pouch. Additionally, there were an additional five superior-grade spiritual jades.

It was evident those spiritual jades were not what Chang Laosi had exchanged for, but were instead his lifetime savings. According to the market rates, they were worth at least two million and seven hundred thousand jade coins. And the price did not consider the rarity and difficulty in obtaining them.

Ren Jie had asked Chang Laosi to keep them away when he saw them. However, Chang Laosi’s stubborn personality meant that he would be unyielding in things that he was determined to do. Therefore, he had strongly refused to keep them away. He said that he considered it a moral obligation to provide an offering to his teacher when he acknowledged his teacher. It was only right for disciples to show respect for their masters. Moreover, he added that he would find all means to procure more spiritual jades if Ren Jie needed more of them. Those spiritual jades that he gave Ren Jie were accumulated after he had used the quantity that he needed for his own cultivation. He had reached a bottleneck in his cultivation at the Divine Power Realm and would not require them at the moment.

Anyways, no matter what Ren Jie said, Chang Laosi would not accept those spiritual jades. Ren Jie realized that he had underestimated Chang Laosi’s burning dedication. He had not expected that what he had done would cause Chang Laosi to be hugely devoted to him in such a short time.

In the end, Ren Jie could only accept them in resignation.

“Forget it. I will accept this teacher acknowledgment gift for now.” Ren Jie happened to require spiritual jades at the moment, especially superior-grade ones. He could only anticipate that those spiritual jades would last for a longer period of time. As for Chang Laosi, Ren Jie wanted to accept him as a disciple wholeheartedly. With the increase in his cultivation realm, Ren Jie could summarize the know-hows in the gambling industry in his previous life and teach them to Chang Laosi. There was still a long road ahead of them.

However, if Ren Jie had known that this would happen, he would not have ordered Chang Laosi to exchange the spiritual jades for him. He could extort the Fang family or demand Gao Zhanyuan to pay his debts in front of the emperor, but he would never conspire against his allies. Since things were at this stage, he could only accept the spiritual jades.

Ren Jie did not bother about the ruckus outside. He had specially informed Tong Qiang that he was going into secluded cultivation and did not allow anyone to disturb him. He planned to give the Fang family clan an entire day to create chaos. That would make the ceremony tomorrow, where he would accept disciples, more meaningful. After making the necessary arrangements, Ren Jie directed his divine sense to enter his mind.

He was slightly sentimental when he saw that familiar buddy of his. It was the only thing that accompanied him to this universe. Because of the changes that happened to it, Ren Jie could gain influence in this new universe. However, everything that he did was far from enough. After all, the universe that he was in was unlike the Earth which had advanced technologies and a robust system developed based on the rule of law.

This was a universe where the powerful preyed on the weak. Ren Jie did not want to be eaten up, made fun of, or oppressed by others. He did not want to be a puppet family head that was similar to that of a puppet emperor. To achieve that, he must become stronger. As he thought about that, Ren Jie used his divine sense to open the jade container beside him and the storage pouch that Chang Laosi had given him. In a split second, Ren Jie could clearly feel five hot streams gushing into his body and entering his mind. Simultaneously, thousands of weak energy entered too. The next moment, Ren Jie suddenly saw the familiar scene that was strongly etched in his brain.

The laptop was completely made from balls of light. At the bottom right corner of the display, there was a wireless network signal icon. As energy gushed into his body, the signal gradually strengthened.

“Done!” Ren Jie yelled in his mind in excitement using his divine sense.